15th Hustle: Make $100,000 Giving Directions

Hollywood isn’t the only place where you can see the rich and famous. In many cities across the globe, there are more and more millionaires being made everyday. Some of the wealthiest people live very normal lives, and you wouldn’t know where they lived if you didn’t personally know them.

Until now.

This has to be one of the most overlooked hustles that I have come across in the last 30 YEARS! Creating your very own ‘Map to the Stars’ and selling tours to famous addresses in your city is a great way to make some extra income, or make it into a full-time position. However, this doesn’t have to be limited to just the starts, as you can included historic landmarks or lesser-known but interesting locations that tourists often overlook. Here’s how it works:

Find out where the rich and famous people in your city live. Also make note of any attractions that guests of the city may find interesting (if your city has a channel that shows these spots, take notes).

Think about the things that you have found interesting that is not mentioned in any promotional material. Cool nightlife spots? A place to make pottery? Where o go to see the best views of the city? The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Place these locations on a map, and arrange a tour that will take about an hour to complete that doesn’t have you driving all around town.

Get permission from the home owner’s association before you go driving through exclusive neighborhoods. If you have to, arrange to give a percentage of your profits to the association for allowing you to bring your visitors through (donations to charity are also a good selling tactic). Especially for has-been stars, you’d be surprised at how many are willing to get in the limelight again any way they can.

Create flyers or brochures and get them into your local airport or tourist destination. Also, get involved with your city’s Chamber of Commerce and see if you can be included with any of their promotions. Give them a free sample tour to get them talking about your unique tour that even they can’t offer.

Rent a fun party bus or van that you can use for cruising with your tour guests.

Get a merchant account and wireless terminal so you can take credit cards on the spot, and not have to deal with the burden of cash.

Smile and get paid from the next group of tourists!

So how do you make over $100k per year doing this? Here’s the math:

$15 per person to take a 1 hour tour, or $25 for two hours.

Get about 15 people to take the tour, then you have $225/hour.

Do four tours a day, and you’ve made $900.

Work four days a week and you’ve made $3,600 (more than most people make per month already).

Translate this into a yearly income, and this is well over $100,000 even when you factor in the expenses!

This works because it targets people who have money and want to spend it, but don’t know where to do to do so. The best times are probably going to be mornings and early afternoons, when traffic is lighter and before rush hour. Do a couple of tours yourself to get familiar with the locations, then outsource the driving and guiding to someone else. As you grow, you can also partner with local businesses and offer the tourists free coupons that the businesses pay for. You get paid, the tourist gets to see new places, and the businesses get more traffic. Truly a win-win for all!

Also, if you can’t get into the neighborhoods where the stars live, you can just ride by and show your guests the subdivision where they live. The streets are public and you are breaking no laws by doing this, and often this is enough to spark interest anyway

So when is the last time you saw a tour bus in your city? Hopefully your answer will be the last time you or someone you hired was driving it! 😀

11 Comments

Nice, after you learn how to make the money from cooliojones blog, you may find beneficial my post on 9-5 vs. online business. Some people could use cooliojones advise and turn a nick to a dime or a dime to the millions. Others are better off not quitting their day jobs. cooliojones, see you in hollywood!

Actually OneYear I’m planning this hustle out now as we speak. It’s not being done now where I live and it would be a great attraction for tourists and locals. Also the window cleaning hustle is very low-key and overlooked, and I love it!